


harmonic convergence

by Weatherbug02



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar: The Last Airbender, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Morally Grey, Obscure Avatar Lore, Sexual Content, Slow Burn, Zutara is canon in this story and it's called Reylo, not the blue people one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 20:33:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15323754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weatherbug02/pseuds/Weatherbug02
Summary: There were legends, stories of long ago—of the bravery of the Earthbenders, of the power of the Firebenders, of the wisdom of the Airbenders, and of the peace of the Waterbenders. Above them all was the Avatar, master of all four elements and the keeper of balance throughout the world.For millennia, the Avatar worked as they should, but when dark spirits entered the world, the cycle did something completely unheard of:Produced a second Avatar.





	harmonic convergence

**Author's Note:**

> Let go your earthly tether.  
> Enter the void.  
> Empty,  
> and become wind.

Ten minutes.

Rey had ten minutes to get in and out and out of sight before it would be too late. The ship was hot, roasting on the inside from the engines that were likely to explode sooner than later. A fresh crash, a risk but almost always worth it for the pay-out.

As her feet settled onto the ground, Rey unlatched herself from her rope and immediately set to work. The darkness was overwhelming and encompassing nearly every corridor, the only light being the sun coming out from the makeshift entrance she cut through at the top of the ship. Navigating was tough enough without the light, but the blankets of steam coming out from the boiler room didn’t aid in anything. She had to work fast.

Unkar wasn’t exactly picky about what he’d accept, but he was picky about what he’d pay top-dollar for, which was close to nothing. An exotic animal that could be resold for double maybe, but he wasn’t a man of luxury. If he were, then he wouldn’t be  _ here _ in the Si Wong Desert of all places.

This just meant Rey had to be smart about her pickings. Sure, she could just grab any old thing and pray it was worth half a jug of water, but that wasn’t enough. It was time to up her game by any means necessary or face the consequences.

The engine room usually held the most valuable pieces, but it was usually the most unstable. One wrong move, and everything could blow at once. Using what little light she had from her lantern, Rey adjusted her mask and grabbed the first tool from her belt. Control panels were common at the trading post, but fully-assembled control panels weren’t. The only problem was getting it out of here, and she didn’t have that kind of time. Instead, Rey focused her time on the Audio-Visual processor and the radiation detector. Those would be worth at least a single gold piece each, enough to buy a week’s worth of rations and water. 

Getting it out went easily enough, at least until another pipe broke and boiling hot water began to flood the room. Her shoes were meant to keep the grainy sand out, and so if she didn’t get out now, one of two things were going to happen: burnt feet that would keep her out for days or electrocution from the broken wires lying around. In the back of her mind, the latter seemed like a good way to seal her fate. Dying on the job was substantially better than spending the rest of her days wasting away in this desert. 

Maybe Rey would’ve just laid down, waited for the water to come and end her sorry, miserable existence, but no. She had things to do.

Stuffing the items into her pack, Rey bolted from the engine room and made her way through the steam down back to the exit. The darkness was even more unforgiving now, the slight glow of her lantern even more dimmed and environments blurring into one another with no semblance of direction. She was beginning to panic, and panic was one of the biggest killers in this desert.

Rey could see the light up above, saw where her rope hung from the exit, and she was almost there. Except then she was on the ground, something wrapped around her foot, and  _ oh god _ , this was it, wasn’t it?

She hoped it was at least a humane spirit, something that would end her suffering quickly rather than the one who liked to savor their food, digesting them over a course of a thousand years. Maybe then, Rey would be okay with dying. Death by a desert spirit seemed like a good way to go.

It was only a second later that she realized that this was no spirit.

“Please,” a voice said, a woman. Rey couldn’t see her face, but the grip on her ankle was strong, no matter how she pulled away from it. “Please don’t leave me here.”

It’d been so long since she heard a human voice. What had it been, two weeks? Three? The words took a few seconds to process, a few seconds more of the woman’s pleading. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” 

“Please,” she said again. The woman was silent for a few seconds. “It doesn’t matter. Just… take this. Please.” The woman pressed her palm against Rey’s and dropped a piece of metal into it, a necklace most likely. “If you can, if it’s possible, return it to my sister.”

“I’m sorry, I—” Rey was cut off when a loud  _ crack _ shuttered from the boiler room down the hall. “I have to go.”

There was a part of her that wanted to stay, but there wasn’t enough time. There never was enough time. And so, Rey ran, getting out of the ship with just moments to spare until another explosion erupted. 

It wasn’t until later, much later, as she laid in her sorry excuse for a bed that Rey looked down at the necklace, a half of a moon with only one word on the back:

_ Rose. _

This meant something. Maybe not much, but it meant something to the poor girl who perished on that ship. She was Earth Kingdom from the looks of the vessel’s design. The green was a dead giveaway. Rey almost wanted to ponder why an Earth Kingdom war ship was flying through the Si Wong Desert of all places, but it wasn’t as if she’d ever find out. It was rare for there to be much life at all here, let alone something that she could base her livelihood off. 

Most of the parts here were long-scavenged, picked away by starving men, women, and children, desperately holding onto the semblance of hope that there would be  _ something _ left in the ruins. It wasn’t uncommon to find bodies of fellow scavengers in the dark interiors of the awaiting metal scraps. Rey had seen more than she’d have wanted to admit, but it was a byproduct of this life. There was no life in the desert, only the early onset of death.

The scratches on the metal wall of her home for the last 10 or so years was a constant reminder of one thing: Rey was going to die here.

She’d long accepted the fact, honestly. When her parents left her here, they’d not only ruined her life, they’d practically ended it too.

Rey tried not to think much about it. Pining over the past, being angry over something she couldn’t control. She’d blocked it out a long time ago. Now she was just… numb to the pain, and that was exactly how she liked it. 

Willing the memories away, Rey opened her pack and laid down the items on the sand. The journey would’ve been too long to be taken today, so she would have to set out at first light. Hopefully there would be no trouble on the way, but that was always too much to ask.

* * *

Morning came after a long, fitful night of sleep. Rey wasn’t exactly sure how long it’d been since she last slept well, but she woke up every morning at the same time, just before the first rays of light peaked over the horizon. This was always her favorite time of day, the promise of something new overshadowing the harrowing worries of the day previous. Every morning, Rey made a choice, to stay or go, and it usually was always the same.

As she set out, she focused on the sand, of the cool air before the blistering sun came full force. Other scavengers passed by occasionally but none bothered her. They hadn’t since she was a little girl, vulnerable and naïve with no real skill in self-defense. The staff had been her first weapon and it had been how she’d fend off the attacks before she really knew what she was doing yet the others seemed to best her with supernatural experticity.

That was before she’d discovered bending.

Rey always had known what bending was in one way or another. One would have to be a fool to  _ not _ know the stories of people who manipulated the environment to their will. At first it seemed like some kind of fairy tale, but then she saw the Sandbenders, Earthbenders who found a way to manipulate sand as well. They flew across the sand in bands. Most were scavengers, some were criminals, and Rey always looked upon them in awe.

There were some day that she wished she could bend. The Sandbenders usually got better deals on their scrap finds and got around the desert quicker, travelled more quickly, and were all-around respected individuals. Respected but also feared.

Rey could even remember some days when she was young that she stuck toward the outpost and pretended to be a Bender—earth, fire, air, sometimes even water—and could protect herself, do and take anything she wanted. A childish fantasy but one that she admittedly still wished would come true.

People were already out and about at the outpost when she arrived, familiar faces giving her the glare of unfamiliar intentions. As Rey approached the stand, she mentally checked the list in her head, just to make sure there was nothing she was forgetting. Except there never was. It was the same goddamn thing every single time.

Unkar wasn’t there yet, but she knew he would be, just like he was there at the same time every single day, waiting to rip off yet another person trying to make it one more day in this hell.

Rey stepped back and reached into her pack, brushing her fingers over the parts she’d managed to get. Back at the ship, there may have been more, but the engine and boiler room was toast, and that was where the most valuable items were. If Unkar was fair then maybe she’d get a decent profit off this, but then again, if Unkar was fair she’d have been ten times richer by now.

As Rey waited, a group of Sandbenders slid up a few hundred meters from where she was sat. As the sand settled, two men appeared, both dressed in the traditional Earth Kingdom colors, and stepped off the sand craft. They didn’t look at Rey as they passed right by her, but Rey sure did look at them, took in every detail.

They were definitely Earth Kingdom if their insignia was any indication, most likely soldiers as well. What they were doing here of all places was the real question here. They walked up to the stand despite the lack of Unkar and spoke in the smallest of whispers, paying no mind to Rey and her peering eyes. 

It didn’t take long for Unkar to appear once the soldiers stepped up. If it were Rey, she’d probably be waiting there for half an hour, but the man just suddenly there. It was almost laughable. “How can I help you?” Rey had known Unkar a long time, but this voice could only be heard in one situation: He was in trouble.

“Unkar Plutt, yes?”

Rey just watched as Unkar considered the men, eyeing them down with shaky hands and a glare hot enough to melt metal. “Depends on who’s asking.”

One of the soldiers stepped forward, hands clasped behind his back and leaned forward. “I’m Officer Vanis of the Earth Kingdom Army. This is my partner, Officer Tarin. Since you’re considered the leader of the tribe here, we’re requesting you put out a notice. The Earth Kingdom Army needs new recruits, and the Earth King has asked we put notices in all states of the kingdom.”

“What’s it to me then?”

“Mr. Plutt, it’s your duty as a citizen of the Earth Kingdom to do what the Earth King asks of you. All we request is to hang a few fliers. We’ll be here until sundown today, and then we’ll be gone.”

“You’re wasting your time here. You’re not going to find anyone for your fancy army in this place. You’d best move on now.”

That wasn’t true, and the soldiers knew it. The Earth Kingdom’s forces came around once every few years. The last time they came, a few scavengers left to pursue what they could. It was a mystery whether the front lines were any better than the desert, but Rey couldn’t imagine it could be much worse. 

It was one of the only ways one could get out of here, make a better life, but few ever took it. There was a reason the desert had more women than men. The men left, promising their families—if they had them—that they’d come back for them. A few did, but most did not, either dying on the battlefield or just disappearing with newfound wealth and the freedom to see the world. Either way, anyone who was lucky enough to leave the Si Wong Desert, never came back.

The officers just stared back at Unkar, fingers curled into fists. Rey had been around enough Benders to know what this meant. There was about to be a fight. Finally, some entertainment. “I’m not sure you understand. This is not a request.” Within a second, hands were gripped on Unkar’s neck, but not any human ones. Rock, shaped like a human hand to use as cuffs. Rey would’ve loved to get her hands on a pair of those if she had any way to control them.

There was a few seconds of choking, a sound probably more satisfying than it should’ve been, before the soldiers relented. “Now, are we going to do business or will my friend here have to call in your replacement?”

If there was one thing Rey knew about Unkar, it was that he hated losing, but with the narrowed eyes of the soldiers and barely loosened grip of the hand on his neck, the vile creature gave a choked nod.

Rey smiled.

* * *

Unkar Plutt was a thief, that much was known. A part of Rey almost wished the Earth Kingdom officers actually  _ had _ gutted the man right in front of her, but then he couldn’t have cheated her out of the scraps were worth much more than she accepted.

Oh well. There wasn’t time for complaining. Four silver pieces would have to do. That’d be enough for a few days worth of food and water, better than she’d have gotten for any other items she’d have found later. Rey wouldn’t even have been half as mad about it if she hadn’t seen Teedo strut up and come out with five gold pieces for items worth much less than hers.

Whatever, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t news the Unkar liked to cheat women. It was just a fact of life at this point. Still, Rey found herself disappointed as she rationed off half of the portion she was saving for tomorrow, stomach still pained as she ate the bread that barely allowed her enough to get through the day.

This was always her favorite time of day, when the blistering sun finally released the desert of its fiery grip and started its decent beneath the horizon. This was when Rey sat outside of her home, barefoot as grains of sand ran through her toes. It was at this time and this time only that she didn’t mind the heat and the blisters and the burning muscles. It was at this time that she could just be at peace.

Rey often wondered what she was doing here, what her place was in all this. Most of the time, she felt rather insignificant, like the last bits of scrap metal in a thoroughly picked through ship that no one wanted or cared about, left alone to roast in the sand. She couldn’t even remember her parents, why they’d left her here.

The scratches marked on the interior metal wall was a firm reminder of exactly how long it’d been. Rey had stopped counting five years ago but kept on marking.

Her parents were never coming back, she knew that, but there was still something that chained her here. Even her hair style was the same as when she was a little girl, that part deep inside her still not letting her let go.

She’d tried over the years to leave, but the reality was that she was always going to hope, hope that one day her mother and father would come back to her. The only difference now was… Rey was running out of options. She couldn’t keep up this life forever. Most scavengers didn’t live past age 40, bodies weakening to the point that most were crippled. The lucky ones lived longer, but that was whether your opinion of “luck” meant meant begging and praying that someone would be kind enough to give you their scraps.

This was what her parents banished her to when they left her alone her in this place.

Maybe it was time then. The Earth Kingdom soldiers wouldn’t be back for several years if trends proved correct, and Rey had a near-death experience every other day at this point. It was… now or never.

There wasn’t much thinking going on after this point, just that Rey needed  _ to get out of here, _ and she didn’t have much time left _. _ The Earth Kingdom Army didn’t accept women, which was a problem, but she’d dealt with worse. Rey’d never looked very feminine with her skinny body and… less than copious bosom. The only thing that gave her away was her hair (among other things).

She didn’t hesitate with the knife, chopping off long brown strands up to the shoulder, but she did look back down at it and ignored the tightening in her throat. There was no time for crying, not when the soldiers were gearing up to leave any time now.

Rey didn’t have many clothes, so after wrapping her clothes to appear more boyish and tying up her hair, she set out with her pack and the girl from the wreckage’s necklace lying underneath her clothes.

* * *

“Who are you?” the officer asked when she arrived, just as they were about to leave.

“I’m nobody.”

**Author's Note:**

> What's up it's your local dumbass author here delivering an AU that's lbr everybody wanted. I am absolutely rewatching the show for research and research only, not to laugh at season 1 Zuko hair.
> 
> Anyway, if you don't know what the hell this show is, fear not. I'm going to try to explain it well enough?? But I absolutely recommend watching the show it's like the most amazing thing in the world ok. Let me know what you think!!
> 
> Follow my Tumblr: https://reyloday.tumblr.com/


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